Color of planets for kids

What Are The Colors of the Planets?

When we look at beautiful images of the planets of our Solar System, it is important to note that we are looking at is not always accurate. Especially where their appearances are concerned, these representations can sometimes be altered or enhanced. This is a common practice, where filters or color enhancement is employed in order to make sure that the planets and their features are clear and discernible.

So what exactly do the planets of the Solar System look like when we take all the added tricks away? If we were to take pictures of them from space, minus the color enhancement, image touch-ups, and other methods designed to bring out their details, what would their true colors and appearances be? We already know that Earth resembles something of a blue marble, but what about the other ones?

To put it simply, the color of every planet in our Solar System is heavily dependent upon their composition. If it is a terrestrial planet – i. e. one composed of minerals and silicate rocks – then its appearance will likely be grey or take on the appearance of oxidized minerals. At the same time, the planet’s atmospheres play a large role – i.e. how they reflect and absorb sunlight will determines which colors they present to an external observer.

The presence of an atmosphere can also determine whether or not there is vegetation, or warm, flowing water on the planet’s surface. If, however, we are talking about gas or ice giants, then the planet’s color will depend on what gases make it up, their absorption of light, and which ones are closer to the surface. All of this comes into play when observing the planets of our Solar System.

Mercury:

Mercury is difficult planet to get good images of, and for obvious reasons. Given its proximity to the Sun, it is virtually impossible to take clear  pictures using ground-based instruments here on the Earth. As a result, the only decent photographs we have of this planet have been taken by spacecraft, specifically missions like Mariner 10, and the more recent MESSENGER probe.

The surface of Mercury is very similar in appearance to our Moon, in that it is grey, pockmarked, and covered in craters that have been caused by impacting space rocks. As a terrestrial planet, Mercury is also composed of mostly iron, nickel and silicate rock, which is differentiated between a metallic core and a rocky mantle and crust.

Mercury also possesses an extremely thin atmosphere that is made up of hydrogen, helium, oxygen, sodium, calcium, potassium and other elements. This atmosphere is so tenuous that astronomers refer to it as an exosphere, one which neither absorbs nor reflects light. So when we look at Mercury, regardless of whether it is from the surface or space, we get a clear view of its surface. And what we have seen is a dark gray, rocky planet.

The planet Venus, as imaged by the Magellan 10 mission. Credit: NASA/JPL

Venus:

The color of Venus, on the other hand, depends very much on the position of the observer. While Venus is also a terrestrial planet, it has an extremely dense atmosphere of carbon dioxide, nitrogen and sulfur dioxide. This means that from orbit, one sees little more than dense clouds of sulfuric acid and not its surface features. This lends the planet a yellowish appearance when seen from space, due to the cloud’s absorption of blue light.

This image of Venus comes to us thanks to the many flyby missions that have taken place over the years. These include NASA’s Vega 1 and 2 missions during the 1980s, followed by the Galileo (1990), Magellan (1994), and the NASA/ESA Cassini–Huygens mission in the 1990s. Since that time, the MESSENGER probe flew by Venus in 2006 on its way to Mercury, while the ESA’s Venus Express entered orbit around Venus in April of 2006.

The view from the ground, however, is a different story. As a terrestrial planet with no vegetation or natural bodies of water, Venus’ surface looks very rugged and rocky. The first images of the surface of Venus were provided by the Soviet-era Venera probes, but the true color was difficult to discern since Venus’ atmosphere filters out blue light.

However, the surface composition (which is known to be rich in igneous basalt) would likely result in a greyish appearance. In this respect, Venus’ surface looks much like Mercury’s and Earth’s Moon.

Earth:

The color of Earth is one we are intimately familiar with, thanks to decades of aerial, orbital, and space-based photography. As a terrestrial planet with a thick nitrogen-oxygen atmosphere, Earth’s appearance comes down to the light-scattering effect of our planet’s atmosphere and our oceans, which causes blue light to scatter more than other colors because of the shortness of its wavelength. The presence of water absorbs light from the red end of the spectrum, similarly presenting a blue appearance to space.

This leads to our planet having its “Blue Marble” appearance, along white clouds covering much of the skies. The surface features, depending on what one is looking at, can range from green (where sufficient vegetation and forests are to be found), to yellow and brown (in the case of deserts and mountainous regions, to white again (where clouds and large ice formations are concerned).

Mars:

Mars is known as the Red Planet for a reason. Thanks to its thin atmosphere and close proximity to Earth, human beings have been getting a clear view of it for over a century. And in the past few decades, thanks to the development of space travel and exploration, our knowledge of the planet has grown by leaps and bounds. From this, we have learned that Mars is similar to Earth in many ways, which includes similarities in composition and the existence of weather patterns.

Essentially, the majority of Mars is reddish-brown, owing to the presence of iron oxide on its surface. This color is also quite clear thanks to the rather thin nature of the atmosphere. Nevertheless, the occasional cloud can also be seen from orbit. The planet also has its share of white patches around the poles, due to the presence of polar ice caps.

Jupiter:

Jupiter is famous for its banded appearance, consisting of orange and brown intermixed with bands of white. This is due to its composition and the weather patterns that are common to the planet. As a gas giant, the outer layer of Jupiter is made up of swirling clouds of hydrogen, helium and other trace elements that move at speeds of up to 100 m/s (360 km/h).

At the same time, the color patterns of orange and white are due to the upwelling of compounds that change color when they are exposed to ultraviolet light from the Sun. These colorful compounds – known as chromophores, and which are likely made up of sulfur, phosphorus, or hydrocarbons – are formed when rising convection cells form crystallizing ammonia that masks out these lower clouds from view.

The most detailed image taken of Jupiter was constructed from images taken by the narrow angle camera on-board NASA’s Cassini-Huygens spacecraft, which allowed for a “true-color” mosaic to be created. These images were taken on December 29th, 2000, during its closest approach to the giant planet at a distance of approximately 10 million kilometers (6.2 million miles).

Saturn:

Much like Jupiter, Saturn has a banded appearance that is due to the peculiar nature of its composition. However, due to Saturn’s lower density, its bands are much fainter and are much wider near the equator. Like Jupiter, the planet is predominantly composed of hydrogen and helium gas with trace amounts of volatiles (such as ammonia) which surround a rocky core.

The presence of hydrogen gas results in clouds of deep red. However, these are obscured by clouds of ammonia, which are closer to the outer edge of the atmosphere and cover the entire planet. The exposure of this ammonia to the Sun’s ultraviolet radiation causes it to appear white. Combined with its deeper red clouds, this results in the planet having a pale gold color.

Saturn’s finer cloud patterns were not observed until the flybys of the Voyager 1 and 2 spacecraft during the 1980s. Since then, Earth-based telescopy has improved to the point where regular observations can be made. The greatest images to date were taken by the ESA’s Cassini-Huygens spacecraft as it conducted multiple flybys of Saturn between 2004 and 2013.

Uranus:

As a gas/ice giant, Uranus is composed largely of molecular hydrogen and helium, along with ammonia, water, hydrogen sulfide and trace amounts of hydrocarbons. The presence of methane is what gives Uranus its aquamarine or cyan coloring, which is due to its prominent absorption bands in the visible and near-infrared spectrum.

To date, the only detailed photos we have of Uranus were provided by the Voyager 2 interplanetary probe, which conducted a flyby of the system in 1986. It’s closest approach occurred on January 24th, 1986, when the probe came within 81,500 kilometers of the cloud tops, before continuing its journey to Neptune.

Neptune:

Neptune is similar in appearance to Uranus, which is due to its similar composition. Composed mainly of hydrogen and helium gas, this gas/ice giant also has traces of hydrocarbons, possibly nitrogen, and “ices” such as water, ammonia, and methane. However, Neptune’s higher proportion of methane and ammonia, along with its greater distance from the Sun (which results in less illumination) is what leads to Neptune’s darker blue color.

Compared to Uranus’ relatively featureless appearance, Neptune’s atmosphere has active and visible weather patterns. The most famous of these are the Great Dark Spot, an anticyclonic storm that is similar in appearance to Jupiter’s Great Red Spot. Like the other dark spots on Neptune, this area is a darker shade of blue compared to its surroundings.

Like Uranus, Neptune has only been photographed up-close on one occasion. Again, this was by the Voyager 2 spacecraft, which made its closest approach to the planet on August 25th, 1989. Although the photographs it took were color-enhanced, they managed to capture Neptune’s deeper blueish color.

As our exploration of the Solar System continues, our understanding of it continues to grow. In time, this knowledge will advance further as we begin to mounted crewed missions to planets like Mars, and additional robotic missions to the outer Solar System.

We have written many interesting articles about the Solar System’s planets here at Universe Today. Here’s our Solar System Guide, Order Of The Planets from the Sun, What Is The Atmosphere Like On Other Planets?, and Some Of The Best Pictures of the Planets In Our Solar System.

If you are interested in the colors of planets, you may also want to check out the color of plants on other worlds and the planets’ true colors.

Astronomy Cast has episodes on all of the planets, starting with Episode 49: Mercury.

Like this:

Like Loading...

Printable Solar System Coloring Pages (Updated 2022)

Learning about outer space is one of the most fun parts of childhood. You can help your little one dive deeper into the vast expanses of the solar system in an engaging way using these free solar system coloring pages.

Use these free printable coloring sheets to teach your child about how fascinating space is in a fun way!

Does your child know that there are eight planets in our solar system? This solar system coloring page is a great opportunity to teach your little one what these planets are.

Our first solar system-inspired coloring sheet features the Sun and the eight planets in the solar system, including Venus, Mercury, Jupiter, Earth, Mars, Uranus, Saturn, and Neptune.

Use this coloring sheet as a fun way to teach your child a thing or two about each of these eight planets. Your little one will love to learn fun facts about outer space!

Did you know that the solar system is about 4.6 billion years old? This is an interesting fact your little one can learn about the solar system.

You can use our next coloring sheet to teach them more exciting facts about the planets.

Our next solar system coloring page shows all the eight planets and their placement according to the Sun.

You can use this sheet to show your little one which planets are the closest to the Sun and which are the farthest.

Print this free coloring sheet for your child and invite them to color each planet as realistically as possible.

Did you know that there are four outer and four inner planets in our solar system?

You can use this solar system coloring page to teach your child which planets are close and which are far from the Sun.

Our next coloring sheet captures all the eight planets, surrounded by a few cute stars. Can your little one recognize each of the planets based on their looks?

Print this page and invite your child to imagine what it is like to see the solar system from outer space while using their creativity to color the planets. There’s no limit to imagination!

Here’s a fun fact about our Sun: it contains 99.865 of all the solar system’s known mass. As you can see in our next coloring sheet, the Sun is the star that all planets revolve around.

This solar system coloring sheet features a cute, smiling Sun that is surrounded by planets and other smaller stars. Your little one can use their crayons and get really creative with colors.

They can color the planets as realistically as possible and use shades of yellow and orange to color the Sun.

Or, they can use their imagination and color the design items on this page using their favorite shades. A blue Sun? Why not?

Our next coloring sheet captures how the eight planets in our solar system revolve around the Sun. This coloring page features a beautiful Sun placed at the center of the page and the planets.

What we love the most about this coloring page is that it leaves room for imagination and creativity.

Your child can color each of the planets using combinations of colors, and they can also draw on the white background to add a personal touch to this work of art.

Print this free solar system coloring page for your children and invite them to get creative with colors while learning more about outer space!

Our next coloring page shows just how intricate and fascinating the solar system is. This printable sheet captures the trajectories of the planets around the Sun in the solar system.

Here’s a fun fact: Uranus orbits the Sun every 84 years. In 2033, Uranus will have made its third complete orbit around our Sun since it was discovered back in 1781.

This coloring page is a great opportunity to teach your little one about how planets orbit around the Sun and how much time it takes for each of them to do it.

Invite your children to prepare their crayons and learn together about outer space in a fun way!

Did you know that in the 60 years of exploring outer space, we’ve sent spacecraft to all of the planets in our solar system?

Use our next coloring page to invite your little one to imagine what it is like to visit each planet. What does your child imagine being on Mars is like?

Our next solar system coloring page captures the Sun in the left top corner of the page and the four inner planets that are the closest to the Sun.

Print this coloring sheet for your child and let them get creative with colors.

We believe that our next solar system-inspired coloring sheet captures the solar system in a very cute way.

This page features eight small adorable planets and the Sun and plenty of cute stars surrounding them.

This solar system coloring sheet features so many design details that your little one will love to color.

They can color the planets as realistically as possible, or they can reimagine each of the planets and the Sun using their favorite shades. Imagination has no limits!

Want to teach your little one more about the inner and outer planets? Use this free printable coloring sheet as a fun exercise to explore outer space together.

Here’s a fun fact to share with your little one about planets: the four inner planets are made of rock and metal, while the four outer planets are made of hydrogen, helium, and other gases.

This cute coloring sheet captures four of the planets in our solar system. Can your little one guess the names of the planets on this page?

Ask your child to get their colorful crayons and learn together about outer space while coloring.

Our last solar system coloring page features the Sun and the eight planets placed on their orbits they use to revolve around the Sun.

Use this printable coloring sheet to teach your little one the names of the eight planets and their position around the Sun.

Print this solar system coloring page and invite your child to get creative with colors. They can experiment with different shades and have fun while learning about the fascinating outer space.

We constantly update our coloring sheet collections, so visit us again for more exciting printable coloring pages!

Colors of the planets of the solar system what color is the planet

Observing from the Earth it is impossible to tell what color the planets of the solar system are. In the night sky, most of them look like small shiny stars, and the most distant ones cannot be seen at all. Illustrations in textbooks on astronomy and other literature are also far from the truth. The true color of celestial bodies can only be seen in photographs taken from space or with the help of powerful telescopes.

We will show the true colors of the planets of the solar system, and also find out why their surface acquired a particular color.

Dim Mercury

To imagine what color Mercury is, just look at the Moon. Both celestial bodies have the same dark gray color. The only difference is that the first object from the Sun does not have large dark spots, which are called "seas" on the Moon.

The color of Mercury is due to several reasons. First, its surface is a thick layer of solidified lava. It erupted from the bowels of the planet several billion years ago, when the core was extremely active. Now large-scale tectonic processes are not observed. Mercury appears as a dark gray globular object, riddled with impact craters after being bombarded by meteorites.

The second reason for this color of the Mercury surface is the absence of an atmosphere. There is no air interference that could distort the real color of the planet Mercury, scattering or absorbing light streams.

Acidic Venus

From Earth, the second planet from the Sun looks like a bright star shining with a steady white light. Space probes have helped to find out what color Venus really is.

To truly convey the shade the Venusian surface, the devices take pictures using various wavelengths Sveta. To see any relief structures in its thick atmosphere, use ultraviolet filters.

The color of Venus varies from yellow-orange to reddish in the pictures. This is how it looks due to acid clouds that absorb the short-wavelength part of the spectrum. In addition, such bright colors in photographs are obtained after computer processing. In fact, the atmosphere of Venus has a pale yellow color, and under it you can see the brown-red surface of the planet. It became such because of the large number of active volcanoes.

Blue Earth

Our house is called the blue planet for a reason. Due to the dominance of oceans over land, from space, Earth's predominant color is light blue. Even on its surface you can see the brown-yellow and green spots of the continents. It is also covered with clumps of white clouds.

The color of the Earth is due not only to the developed hydrosphere, but also a dense oxygen-containing air shell. earthly atmosphere scatters sunlight and also absorbs the yellow-red part spectrum. With a significant removal, blue, green and brown spots on the surfaces of our planet merge. It takes on an even blue tint.

Iron Mars

The question of what color Mars is is unlikely to cause anyone any difficulty. The terrestrial neighbor is often called the red planet. From space, the Martian surface appears reddish-orange due to an upper layer rich in iron-bearing minerals such as hematite and magnetite. Clouds of mineral dust constantly hover above the surface, which makes the fourth planet so red from afar.

Opportunity and Curiosity rovers transmitted to Earth images that captured the real shade of the upper layers of Mars. close its surface looks yellowish-brown with individual patches of brown, green and gold. This color indicates high activity. erosion processes in the Martian soil.

Unstable Jupiter

It is difficult to give an unambiguous answer to the question of what color the planet Jupiter is. Its color is influenced by the presence of storms in the atmosphere and the filters used when shooting.

In reality, Jupiter looks like striped-spotted ball. On a light yellow background, large reddish-brown stripes. They are due to the presence in the hydrogen-helium atmosphere of a giant impurities of phosphorus, sulfur and ammonia.

Due to the instability of atmospheric phenomena, the shade Jupiter is constantly changing. Even The Great Red Spot, observed for more than 350 years, is changing its color from intense red-brown to light red. This is due to the periodic the weakening of the wind speed in this giant whirlwind.

Pale Saturn

The color of the planet Saturn is due to its atmosphere, because the second giant of the solar system also does not have a solid surface. In all images taken by ground-based and orbiting telescopes, it appears pale yellow with thin orange stripes near the equator. The Saturnian atmosphere received such a shade due to the high content of ammonia.

The true color of Saturn's rings was captured by the Cassini spacecraft. Flying near the planet in 2004, he transmitted to Earth many images of the gas giant and its rings. When using an ultraviolet filter, formations of dust and ice appear red and blue-blue. At the same time, silicates shine in red, and ice particles in blue. Using red, green and blue filters in the shot, the rings took on a dull brownish gray tint.

Icy Uranus

What color of Uranus did the photographs taken by the Voyager interplanetary probe and the Hubble telescope reveal. The ice giant is a greenish-blue ball. Our Earth will also look like when viewed from a distance.

The atmosphere of Uranus acquired such a shade due to simple hydrocarbon and methane. It absorbs long wavelength solar radiation. rays (red-yellow part of the spectrum).

Windy Neptune

The blue-blue color of the planet Neptune is the result of large concentrations of methane in the atmosphere. However, Neptune has a darker hue than neighbor Uranus. This is due to the fact that in addition to a simple hydrocarbon, the gas shell of Neptune contains other organic compounds that absorb yellow-red light waves.

Photographs taken near the surface of the eighth planet in the solar system show dark blue spots. These are giant atmospheric whirlwinds, whose speed sometimes reaches 2400 km / h.

Planets of the solar system for children

Sun, Moon, clouds - everything connected with the sky is of interest. Especially at night, when the entire space above your head is covered with shining dots, different in size and as if folding into different shapes. Children can easily find a “bucket” in the sky (it is from these four clearly visible “stars” that Ursa Major is formed), Sirius, Jupiter, Venus and other bright stars; often ask questions about the Milky Way and the Moon.

Space is indeed a very interesting topic, it fascinates with its scale and mystery. The child will listen with pleasure to the stories of the planets of the solar system. But it is necessary to immediately define the terms so that there is no confusion.

The Sun and the Solar System

We all know what the Sun looks like: a big hot ball of light. And in this case, vision does not deceive us: the Sun, like other stars, is a huge ball of gas that burns and warms everything around.

Fortunately for the Earth, it is located at a considerable distance from our planet. Why fortunately? Yes, because if it were closer, life on Earth would not exist - everything would simply burn out from the heat emanating from the Sun. And if it were too far, all living beings would die from the cold. So we are very lucky with the distance to the Sun.

Describing its size in numbers is meaningless - it is difficult to realize such scales even for an adult. How to present it? You can try to explain with an example that the Sun is larger than the Earth (the very Earth on which cities and countries, oceans and deserts are located; on which you need to fly from one country to another by plane for more than a day) at 109once. It's like comparing a soccer ball to a pinhead. And we see this huge Sun in the sky quite small. So it is very far away.

The sun is not the only star in the universe. How many such suns - no one knows. Astronomers have been studying the Cosmos for more than one century, they have powerful instruments - telescopes and other modern equipment, but they have no answer to these questions.

The sun was formed about 5 billion years ago from a giant gas cloud. At the same time, the formation of the solar system began - the planets that revolve around the sun. They were formed from "space debris" (dust, gas, fragments of meteorites), as if "sintering" under the influence of the Sun. Therefore, at first they were red-hot, but later cooled down.

The Sun is in the center of the solar system, 8 planets move around it, including our Earth. All of them are different in composition, size, each moves along its own path - it is called an orbit - at a different distance from the Sun.

In addition to the fact that the planets revolve around the Sun, they themselves revolve around their own axis. It is this complex rotation that leads to the change of seasons and time of day. We know that on Earth the calendar year lasts 365 days, which means that our planet makes a revolution around the Sun in 365 days. And the Earth makes a rotation around its axis in 24 hours - therefore, a day on Earth lasts 24 hours. On other planets, things are different. The further the planet is from the Sun, the longer the year there.

Diversity is also reflected in the names of the planets. Now we use the names that the ancient Romans gave in honor of their gods, but earlier, of course, each culture of the planet was called in its own way. Interestingly, the Romans gave names to the planets of the solar system for a reason, but based on their appearance and features.

Mercury

This planet is closest to the Sun. It is small and "nimble": it makes a revolution around the Sun faster than all other planets. Therefore, it was named after the Roman fleet god of trade.

A year on Mercury is only 88 days long. But the day is very long - more than 58 days - this planet rotates so leisurely around its axis. This leads to a big difference in temperature "day" and "night": the part facing the Sun manages to warm up to 427 degrees, but the other side of the planet cools down to -193.

Another feature of Mercury is that this planet has practically no atmosphere, that is, a gas cloud that surrounds almost all the planets of the solar system. It is the atmosphere that could make temperature drops less sharp, but it is not there, which is why it is so hot here in “summer” and so cold in “winter”. Of course, no life in such conditions is possible.

Venus

This planet, close to the Sun, is located between Mercury and the Earth. It is very beautiful and bright, and can be seen even in the daytime and without a telescope, which is why it is called the Morning Star.

Venus is named after the ancient Roman goddess of love and beauty.

Venus was often called the "twin of the Earth" - it really is similar to our planet both in size and mass, so it was previously believed that life could be on it. But no: it's too hot on Venus - about 450 degrees. It is the hottest planet in the solar system. In addition, in the atmosphere of Venus there is practically no oxygen necessary for life - the entire planet is shrouded in poisonous clouds of carbon dioxide. People, of course, could not exist in such conditions; and no other signs of life were found here either.

One year on Venus is equal to 224 days on Earth, but there are no “winter colds” and no change of seasons at all – hot summer always reigns.

By the way, all the planets of the solar system move in one direction, and Venus in the other.

Earth

The planet Earth, on which we all live, is the third in distance from the Sun and the fifth largest.

Why, like the other planets, was it not given the name of some god? Perhaps because in ancient times it was believed that the Earth is the center of the Universe, all other celestial bodies revolve around it, and the Earth itself is not part of the heavens. Therefore, its name is translated from the Anglo-Saxon language as "from the ground." This name (English Earth) has been known since 1400.

Of course, we know much more about the Earth than about all the other planets in the solar system. But it also hides many more secrets that scientists are trying to uncover.

The closest of all celestial bodies to the Earth is its natural satellite - the Moon. It is located at such a distance from the Earth that it is suitable for research, so in our time we already know a lot about the Moon: we have samples of the lunar soil, data on its atmosphere, photographs of the reverse side (the Moon is always turned to the Earth with one side). Moreover, the Moon is the only celestial body that has been visited by man. American astronaut Neil Armstrong was the first to walk on the moon. It happened on 21 July 1969 years old.

Now the study of the Moon continues, and there are even plans to build inhabited lunar bases on its surface in the near future.

Mars

Next in distance from the Sun and the most "studied" planet in the solar system after the Earth. Mars rovers have been sent to Mars, spacecraft are operating in orbit, thanks to which we have been able to learn a lot about this planet.

Mars is much smaller than Earth. Almost twice the diameter of Mars is less than the diameter of the Earth - and also, twice the diameter of the Moon.

The reddish color of the planet, which gave it the name of the ancient Roman god of war, is due to the large amount of iron oxide on the surface.

The temperature on Mars is very low, averaging -47°C. But, unlike Venus, there are warm and cold periods; in summer at some points it can get warmer up to 20 degrees during the day - and cool down to -90 ° C at night. Such a huge temperature difference is created by winds and a very rarefied atmosphere.

The length of a day on Mars is 24 hours 39minutes 35 seconds. A year lasts 669 Martian solar days (687, if you count in Earth days - they are 40 minutes shorter).

Mars has the highest mountains and deepest depressions of any known planet in our system. Also there are the largest volcanoes.

There is water on Mars. Due to low temperatures, it exists in the form of ice, but recently scientists have come to the conclusion that there are subglacial lakes in which water does not freeze. This is very significant information, since the presence of water is one of the important conditions for life on the planet.

Unfortunately, so far researchers have not found living organisms on Mars.

Two satellites of Mars, Phobos and Deimos, are also well studied. They are quite small and are located quite close to Mars. All this by cosmic standards, of course. If compared with the Moon, then the radius of Phobos will be 158, and the radius of Deimos - 290 times less than the radius of the Moon. And by distance: the Moon is located 384 thousand km from the Earth; Deimos is 23,000 km from Mars, and Phobos is “close” at all: 9,000 km from Mars.

Jupiter

The largest planet in the solar system. It is 300 times heavier than the Earth and 11 times larger in diameter. Therefore, she got her name in part of the main Roman god.

A day on Jupiter is 10 Earth hours and a year is 12 Earth years.

There is no solid soil on Jupiter at all - the whole planet is a bunch of gas. This makes it look more like a star than a planet. Indeed, scientists believe that if there were more substances such as hydrogen and helium in the atmosphere of Jupiter, it would turn into a full-fledged star.

Jupiter has 69 moons, the largest of which are Europa, Io, Callisto and Ganymede. They were discovered by the famous astronomer Galileo Galilei back in 1610.

In modern photographs, Jupiter looks very intricate: its surface is an alternation of dark and light zones that constantly change shape, color and location. It turns out that we see the atmosphere of the planet changing under the influence of powerful winds, where the light zones are clouds of frozen ammonia particles, and the dark ones contain various chemical elements.

It is very cold above the clouds of Jupiter (about -145°C), but noticeably "warmers" as it approaches the center. Jupiter's core is hotter than the Sun's surface, at over 24,000°C.

A famous feature of Jupiter is the red spot, which also constantly changes color, size and shape and is clearly visible in the photo of the planet. These are not terrain features, but a giant hurricane - its size is three times the diameter of the Earth, and its speed reaches 450 km per hour.

Saturn

This planet is in many ways similar to Jupiter: it is large (the second largest in the solar system), does not have a solid surface. There is a similarity in the composition of the atmosphere, and the features of movement. This is probably why the planet got its name: in Roman mythology, Saturn is the father of Jupiter. Another version of the origin of the name is the “slowness” of the planet, which makes a complete revolution around the Sun in 30 Earth years, and Saturn in ancient Roman mythology is the god of time (or agriculture).

Saturn rotates quite quickly around its axis: a day on this planet is 10 hours 33 minutes.

The main feature of Saturn is its rings. Rings - dense formations of ice, dust and stones - are found in four gas giant planets, but they are most noticeable on Saturn. These rings are very thin - with a diameter of about 250,000 km, their thickness is less than a kilometer. The famous rings of Saturn were discovered by astronomers in 1610, but there is still no theory to explain their formation.

Saturn is the most distant planet from Earth that can still be seen without special equipment.

Now 53 moons of Saturn are known, but there are reasons to believe that there are more of them.

There are northern lights on Saturn. And strange clouds were observed here - almost the correct hexagonal shape.

Like Jupiter, the temperature in Saturn's upper atmosphere is very low - down to -175°C - and rises towards the center, reaching 11,700°C at the core. Saturn thus generates energy itself - even more than it receives from the Sun.

Uranus

This planet was the first planet that people learned about only after the invention of the telescope: it was discovered in 1781 by the English astronomer William Herschel. In order not to violate traditions, she was also named after a god, but not from Roman, but from Greek mythology. Uranus is the god of the sky.

Before the official discovery, the planet was observed more than once and even recorded in their records by astronomers, although they considered it to be a dim star.

The mass of Uranus is almost 15 times the mass of the Earth.

Uranus is the coldest of all the planets in the solar system, although not the most distant from the Sun (Neptune is farther away). The lowest temperature ever recorded on this planet is -224°C.

Uranus does not have a solid surface, but it is not only gas (like Saturn and Jupiter): the gaseous atmosphere of this planet smoothly passes into liquid layers consisting of a mixture of water, ammonia and methane. Because of the low temperatures, it is more of an ice than a liquid, which is why astronomers refer to Uranus as an "ice giant".

A day on Uranus lasts 17 Earth hours, and a year is 84 Earth years.

Uranus has 27 satellites.

An interesting feature of this planet is its position: Uranus rotates around its axis, as if "lying on its side." Because of this position, the “seasons” on the planet are rather unusual: 42 years of “summer” and sunlight in the hemisphere directed towards the Sun, and a continuous “polar night” of 42 years in the opposite hemisphere. Then the hemispheres change.

Uranus appears visually blue-green due to the presence of trace amounts of methane in the atmosphere.

Neptune

The most distant planet from the Sun - Neptune - was discovered later than others, only in 1846. And not as a result of observations, but thanks to mathematical calculations. The planet was named after the Roman god - the owner of the seas because of the blue color due to the presence of methane in the atmosphere.

Neptune is one of the largest planets in the solar system, its mass is 17.2 times greater than that of the Earth. The diameter of Neptune exceeds the Earth by almost 4 times.

The planet is a ball of gas and ice, with a rocky core - according to some estimates, the core reaches the size of the Earth.

The day on Neptune is about 16 hours, and the year is the longest compared to the year on the other planets: its duration here is about 165 Earth years.

Neptune is very cold: the average temperature is only about -210°C.

Of all the planets in the solar system, the lowest temperature recorded on Uranus, but on the satellite of Neptune - Triton - the temperature was recorded even lower: -235 ° C. Moreover, the surface of this satellite is quite active: eruptions of volcanoes or geysers were observed on it.

A total of 14 satellites revolve around Neptune. Triton is the largest of them - about 2700 km in diameter.

The remoteness of Neptune from the Earth greatly complicates the study of this planet. The only time a research vessel, the Voyager 2 space probe, passed within relatively close range of Neptune was in 1989. And this “close distance” was equal to 5 thousand km from the surface of the planet. During these studies, it was possible to obtain data on the planet's atmosphere, its rings, and satellites. But there are no plans to launch spacecraft to Neptune in the near future.

Until recently, it was believed that there were 9 planets in the solar system, not 8. The ninth planet was called Pluto . It was discovered only in 1930, relatively recently by the standards of science. But later scientists changed its status: Pluto is now called a "dwarf planet."

In space, there are not only planets and stars - we are surrounded by various cosmic bodies: comets, meteors, asteroids, nebulae. Some of them can be observed even without special instruments. Planets and stars are constantly changing their position. Sometimes the planets line up in a single line - this is called the "parade of planets.

Learn more

• 
  How to make a child remember spellings
• 
  Creativity activity for children
• 
  Jack and beanstalk fairy tale
• 
  Spelling activities for first graders
• 
  3 little pigs original story
• 
  Reading strategies animals
• 
  20 sight words for kindergarten
• 
  When do kids know letters
• 
  Kindergarten reading levels books
• 
  Consonants and vowels worksheet
• 
  Bedtime story for baby girl